Shaun White Drops Out of Snowboard Slopestyle

Shaun White planned to compete in the Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle at the Winter X Games, but after a few practice runs this morning the multi-time champion has decided that his ankle is not ell enough to compete. White will not compete in Slopestyle but he may be ready to ride the pipe on Sunday.

White told ESPN:

“I’m disappointed. My priority this year was to ride in Slopestyle, and unfortunately I hit my ankle again riding the course in today’s practice. I’m going to rest up and get ready to ride Pipe on Sunday.”

ESPN reports that White scored four consecutive victories at the Slopestyle event from 2003 to 2006. White shifted his focus to halfpipe after his 2009 victory and took home his second Olympic gold at the Vancouver Olympics. White returned to Slopestyle last year but only manage to take 13th place.

Slopestyle will make its debut at the Olympic games in 2014 and White was hoping to re-establish himself as the man to beat. White said:

“Every year we try to outdo ourselves, and X Games is the place where we like to display what we’ve been working on. Especially for me, this is it: This is where I want to come and I want to do my best tricks and show the other riders what I’ve been working on. That’s definitely why we’re here: to step it up.”

Here’s a video of Shaun White’s 2009 Slopestyle victory.